Dallas council member Jennifer Staubach Gates uses CPR to save man's life at restaurant

City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates saved an elderly man's life by performing CPR on him at a North Dallas restaurant on Monday night.

Gates, a certified nurse and the daughter of Cowboy legend Roger Staubach, was eating dinner at The Mercury with her husband and some friends. A waiter came by in search of a medical professional. A diner was apparently choking in the back.

"They were doing the heimlich, he appeared unconscious," Gates said.

The man was foaming at the mouth and, when Gates checked for a pulse, she found none. She feared the worst.

"I thought he was dead," Gates said. "I thought he was gone. I thought he'd had a heart attack … and that I wasn't going to get him back. His eyes were rolled back. It was bad."

But she got the man on the ground and started chest compressions, which she did for an estimated two to three minutes, she said, before the man threw up and regained consciousness.

Paramedics arrived a short time later and took the man to a local hospital. Gates said she called the restaurant the next day and was told the man is doing OK. He did not appear to know who she was, though she said she told the paramedics she is a Dallas City Council member.

Gates worked as a hospital nurse more than 20 years ago. More recently, she served as a substitute school nurse. She said she can't remember the last time she was trained in CPR and she had never performed it on anyone before Monday.

"It's something you never forget," she said. "I just did what I've been trained to do."

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